An Airbus plane A350, operated by Japan Airlines has burst into flames after colliding with another plane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
Japan’s Coast Guard said one of its planes – bound for Niigata on Japan’s western coast to provide aid after Monday’s huge earthquake – was the other aircraft involved in the collision.
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The Japan Airlines (JAL) plane collided with the small plane carrying aid to earthquake-hit west coast of the country. The collision happened after the Airbus A350 landed, it then skidded down the runway shortly before 6pm (09:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
Tetsuo Saito, the Japanese transport minister told reporters that all 379 passengers onboard the JAL plane were safely evacuated. Five of the six crew members on board the small plane died, Saito said.
All 379 people on Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 got out safely before the Airbus A350 was fully engulfed in flames.
The pilot of the coast guard’s Bombardier Dash-8 plane escaped but the five crew members died, Saito said. The aircraft was preparing to take off to deliver aid to an area affected by a major earthquake on Monday, officials said.
Television footage showed an orange fireball erupting from the Japan Airlines plane as it collided while landing, and the airliner then spewed smoke from its side as it continued down the runway. Within 20 minutes, all passengers and crew members slid down emergency chutes to get away.
As firefighters tried to put out the blaze with streams of water, the area around the passenger plane’s wing caught fire. The flames spread throughout the plane, which eventually collapsed. The fire was extinguished after about six hours.
A spokesperson at JAL said the aircraft had flown in from New Chitose Airport on the northern island of Hokkaido.
“I was wondering what happened and then I felt the airplane tilted to the side at the runway and felt a big bump,” Satoshi Yamake, who was on board the plane. “The flight attendants told us to stay calm and instructed us to get off the plane.”
Fourteen people were injured, according to Japan Airlines, but none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.
Tuesday’s accident was the first severe damage to an Airbus A350, among the industry’s newest large passenger planes. It entered commercial service in 2015. Airbus said in a statement it was sending specialists to help Japanese and French officials investigating the accident, and that the plane was delivered to Japan Airlines in late 2021.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
